Rossi encouraged by Bridgestone test

The Fiat Yamaha rider had to cut short his final day of the test as the pain in his right hand, a legacy of his accident in the season finale in Valencia, was too much. But he still thinks he did enough this week to feel upbeat about progress for next year.

"Today I tried to do my best but I wasn't able to ride fast due to my hand; it started hurting a lot today and I had no power to ride with it in such conditions," said Rossi after the test.

"The fracture is still hurting and furthermore I have not ridden or trained for almost one month, so it is to be expected that today my hand would be tired. I knew I was not in perfect shape, and I also expected to have some problems at this first test back.

"Anyway, we were able to finish our programme and despite today I think it's been a positive first test with Bridgestone.

"Of course we still have work to do on the bike in general and with regards to adapting it to the new tyres but I can reconfirm my first feeling of two days ago, which was positive. Now we have a better idea where we need to work hard in order to improve further."

Yamaha's team manager Davide Brivio said the team had gained enough information to ready themselves for the next test in January.

"It's been a very interesting test session here in Jerez; we had the chance to meet all the Bridgestone engineers and technicians who will work with us next season and we got very interesting information from them and from the new tyres," he said.

"In return we were also able to give them important information to work on, and now we need to analyze all the data and work hard on it during the winter in order to be as ready as possible in January.

"Now Valentino and the team have some holiday time, which they deserve because they have worked hard all year, then we will be back at Sepang in January for the final preparation before the 2008 championship"